Insecticide



Patented Nov. 9, 1937 Y "UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE I aosasss mssc'riomn rm L. Bossier, Niagara Falls, N. Ys assignor to n E. I. do Pont de Nemours & Company, Wilmington, Del.,' a corporation of Delaware I No Drawing. Appl cation April 24 1930, SerlalNm-IBJM h 1 Claims. (ci er-s4) This invention relates to the preparation and which has partly the characteristics of a comemployment of insecticidal sprays, especially for pletely converted acetal and partly the properties agricultural and horticultural purposes and more of polyvinyl alcohol. Similarly, a partial ester of particularly to the preparationand use of nicopolyvinyl alcohol may be made by only partially 5 tine sprays. 1 esterifying the alcohol polymer. Such polyvinyl 5 Insecticidal spray compilations containing compounds, as well as polyvinylgalcohol, are well some form of the alkaloid, nicotine, have .long known and neednot be more fully described here. been used, especiallyin horticultural work. Such vI have discovered that by. adding a small sprays .usually consist essentially of dilute aqueous amount of polyvinyl alcoholor other hydrophilicv solutions of nicotine sulfate. Various nicotinepolyvinyl compound to A an aqueous nicotine o containing preparations useful as insecticides spray, the tendency for the nicotine to volatilize may be made from tobacco. Nicotine, as well as isgrea ly duced. Without a y Substantial its chemical'compounds, as commonly used in inution of the toxic action of the nicotine. By insecticidal preparations, is fairly volatile and this means, the time over which the nicotine 16 for this reason, the toxic eflect of a nicotine sp y is eflective as an insecticide is markedly spray ceases within a relatively short time after increased. In addition to this increase of toxic its application. For example, the usual nicotine p ri d, the p lyvin compounds n ll n sulfate spray becomes practically ineffective withspreading and S c a thus further 111.? in around 24 hours of its application, the exact cre ng the efiectiveness oi the spl'fly-. 1

time depending upon atmospheric conditions such sired, other insecticides, soluble or insoluble'may 20 as temperature and the initial concentration of be added to the nicotine sp fay of m inventionthe nicotine. Hence, if a complete kill of the In one method of practicing my invention, I infesting insects is not obtained within th once may dissolve nicotine sulfate or other suitable tive time, one or more following treatments are form of nicotine in water in the usual amounts 25 required to complete the kill. A method for inand Edd thereto a Small amount f P lyv 25 creasing the effective toxic period of a nicotine alcohol. The amount of p yvinyl alcohol or. spray would be valuable in increasing its eilec- Similar y p i Polyvinyl compound y V y tiveness anddecreasing th number of following over a wide range, but should not be less than treatments to obtain a complete kill of insects a ut by w i ht f t aqu us spray f r susceptible to this i on at iv period of th effective results. I prefer to use around 0.2 to 30 season. 2. of polyvinyl alcohol. Larger amounts may An object of the present invention is to provide be used f desired. but I prefer touse not more an improved nicotine-containing insecticidal tha about of the polyvinyl o p u d in a spray material. A further object is to increase D -y solution. since larger amounts tend to unthe period of time over which a nicotine spray duly increase the Viscosity of the p y 50 88 to 35 is efleotive as an ti d oth object will interfere with the operation of the ordinary be apparent from the following description of my Spraying q pmentinvention. The eflectiveness of polyvinyl alcohol in l'e-v .Tn bov objects are tt i in accordance tarding the volatillzation of nicotine from a here 40 with my herein described invention byincorpocultural pr y l ion '15 illustrated y h 40 rating a hydrophilic polyvinyl compound in a; followlns p e: water-base insecticidal spray composition which Exam contains an eilective form of nicotine, e. g., p nicotine sulfate. 7 A spray solution was made up by dissolving ,1

By the term hydrophilic polyvinyl compound part of a commercial nicotine sulfate prepara- 45 as used herein and in the appended claims, 1 tion known as Black leaf in 1000 pa ts or means th polymers of vinyl compqudg which water. Two equal portions of this solution were I are water soluble or are capable of swelling by Placed t 6011mm?! 8nd by Weight of water absorption, or both. This includes polyv yli-l w dissolved in P nvinyl alcohol and partial derivatives of poly- 'IheILIOr a period of 36 hours, 8 rapid r m Of 50 vinyl alcohol such as the esters, ethers or actlls W88 bubbled through. h ution in each thereof in which unreacted vinyl alcohol hydroxy container n u ly. the rate of air flow begroups occur. For example, such partial acetal 8 h e for each Every 6 hours P i ns may be made by condensing an aldehyde with an of the solutions were removed and sprayed onto excess of polyvinyl alcohol, to give a product groups of black chrysanthemum aphids and the 55 number of aphids killed determined. The resul obtained are tabulated below;

Percentaue of aphids killed Nicotinespray' Nicotine mtnininf I W e v slooho 1 Horn Pauli Plftflll as sa 85 87 84 96 76 93 as 01 The hydrophilic polyvinyl compounds may be incorporated in nicotine-containing insecticidal compositions in various ways. Instead of adding polyvinylalcohol to the aqueous solution or. nico- 20 tine as above described, the polyvinyl compound maybe'added tonicotine or a-concentratednicotine preparationin-suitableproportions and-this mixture added to water to make the spraying liquid. If desired, insecticides other-than nicotine or fungicides may be incorporated inthe spray; it insoluble-poisons, e. g., lead arsenate are thus added.*the spreadingand sticking properties of the polyvinyl compound are of further advantage.

A further advantage 0! :my hereindescribed nicotine spray solutions is that when the solution after spraying on foliage, the polyvinyl compound tends to iorm a illm which is considerably less soluble in water than the polyvinyl compound originally added. Although relatively insoluble, this fllm will absorb water to become swelled". .The iormati'onoi. this relatively insoluble film acts to protect the nicotine.

. especially from they washing action oi rain, thus further insuring the eilectivenes's oi the poison over an extended period "o'i time. I

I claim: 1

1. An insecticidalcomposition containing nicotine and a hydrophilic polyvinyl compound.

6. An insecticidal spray composition comprising i an aqueous solution oi a nicotine compound and not less than about 0.1% of a hydrophilic :polyvinyl compound.

7. An insecticidal spray composition comprising an aqueous solution of nicotine sulfate and about. 0.2 to 2.0%ot polyvinyl alcohol.. i v a 

